'We have to focus on the living': Rescuers dig through quake rubble to find survivors
Summary
- Rescuers are desperately searching for survivors under the rubble of buildings in southern Turkey and northern Syria after two huge earthquakes on Monday
- More than 5,000 people have been killed but there are warnings the death toll could continue to surge
- One rescue worker tells the BBC he has to "concentrate on the living" as efforts to find survivors head into a second freezing-cold night
- Relatives of victims who lived in collapsed buildings have joined frantic rescue efforts in one of the worst-hit Turkish cities, using pickaxes and crowbars
- Some anguished families have said rescue services took too long to respond in some areas
- The first 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday, followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor hours later
Mexico sends its famed search dogs
Vanessa Buschschluter
Latin America and Caribbean editor
Mexico, a country which is prone to earthquakes, is sending a group of 16 of its search and rescue dogs to Turkey.
The dogs won the hearts of Mexicans when they combed through the rubble of the earthquake which hit Mexico City and nearby regions in 2017, killing hundreds of people.
The most famous of them, Frida, a Golden Labrador Retriever wearing protective goggles and booties who saved 12 people during her career, died of old age three months ago.
Ukraine releases video appearing to show Russian troops beating own wounded officer
Footage thought to show Wagner group fighters beating commander with what appear to be shovels
Warning: video contains footage that some viewers may find distressing
Luke Harding in Kyiv
Ukraine has released extraordinary video footage that appears to show Russian fighters dragging their badly wounded commander away from the battlefield, and then beating him violently with what appear to be shovels.
A Ukrainian drone captured the incident near the eastern city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has been raging for months. Four soldiers from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group carry their colleague through a landscape of ruined houses, holding his arms and legs.
They then dump him next to a barn. A second video appears to show three men then hitting him repeatedly with shovels. The fate of the injured commander is unclear. But the episode tallies with persistent reports of low morale among Russian mercenary units.
Pakistan lifts Wikipedia ban
Last week the online encyclopedia was blocked over what Pakistan's media regulator deemed "blasphemous material." The government has unblocked the site following a public outcry.
Pakistan lifted its restriction on Wikipedia early on Tuesday, days after the country's media regulator blocked the site for not removing what it described as "blasphemous" content.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif personally requested the unblocking of the online encyclopedia, according to a statement.
The site was blocked last week by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), after a deadline expired that the country had given to Wikipedia to remove the contentious material.
Syrian hospitals overwhelmed with injured after quake: ‘They can't take any more’
Medical personnel and rescue workers have been stretched to their limits after a devastating earthquake hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria in the early morning of February 6. Opposition-controlled northern Syria has been particularly affected, and doctors report a shortage of medical facilities to treat the injured. The FRANCE 24 Observers spoke to a hospital nurse in Salqin who said that the region is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis as a major lifeline for cross-border aid has been closed.
Hospitals in the north have been completely overwhelmed in the wake of the earthquake. And doctors in Syria say they don’t have the resources or equipment to address the severity or sheer scale of the injuries endured by survivors.
A number of hospitals were themselves damaged in the earthquake, overburdening those left functioning. Northern Syria’s medical infrastructure has already been crippled by heavy airstrikes in recent years carried out by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies.
Japan criticizes Russia's 'illegal occupation' of disputed isles
The Japanese government and civic groups on Tuesday criticized Russia for its "illegal occupation" of disputed islands off Hokkaido in a rally demanding their return, with Tokyo using the phrase for the first time in five years following a deterioration of bilateral ties over Moscow's war in Ukraine.
"It is completely unacceptable that the Northern Territories have yet to be returned since the Soviet Union's illegal occupation of them 77 years ago," a statement adopted during the annual event in Tokyo said in reference to the islands, which Russia calls the Southern Kurils.
The territorial row has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a postwar peace treaty.
‘Total miscalculation’: China goes into crisis management mode on balloon fallout
As the new year got underway in China, hopes appeared to be running high that an easing of tensions with the United States could unfold in the months ahead.
China’s Foreign Ministry expressed as much late last month when it said China would “welcome” a visit from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – an expected visit that analysts say Beijing viewed as an opportunity to help strengthen its economy and repair fraught diplomatic ties.
So when a high-altitude balloon from China carrying a payload the size of three coach buses equipped with what American officials have described as surveillance equipment was spotted over the continental US, visibly hovering above a state with key military assets and ultimately sparking an international incident – it naturally raised critical questions about just what had happened, and why.
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